FANBOYS and AAAWWUBIS

On Monday, we focused on FANBOYS and how to tell the difference between simple sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences. I’m not sure that I can still tell the difference between all of them, but I am sure that with practice I will be an expert at it. We also got to listen to a country song and make her simple sentences into compound and complex sentences. It was nice to get to practice with something that wasn’t some hypothetical situation or worksheet. AAAWWUBIS was another thing we went over in class on Monday.

A-Although

A-As

W-When

W-While

U-Until

B-Because

I-If

S-Since

Now, I know that I am supposed to put a comma after these words when they are connecting two sentences together. Barbara went over this with us on the computer with our own sentences; this was so helpful, seeing sentences we created being used to show something we are learning is so great.

Wednesday was another helpful day we had a mini-lesson on commas after introductory elements, and also worked on scrapbook examples. I am so thankful that we have these mini-lessons. It is so great to be able to have short lessons that focus on one aspect of grammar and answer any questions about that specific rule. Stephanie and Shannon really seemed to know what they were talking about and I am happy they did. Scrapbooks seem to be really hard for people to get done in time for the deadline. Barbara noticed this and helped us by giving us almost half the period to find examples for our scrapbooks. It was wonderful to be able to ask her if what I found in the newspapers was actually an error, and to also have her explain what I need to say in my scrapbook to explain the error.

I am still kind of nervous about my grammar, I am never exactly sure when I should put commas and when to leave them out. Some of the time I do it right and some of the time I don’t, I am hoping that practice will help this. Of course I only have a semester to have Barbara pointing out my grammar mistakes, so I had better start learning soon. I have faith in Barbara and faith in myself to learn this stuff, I am trying really hard to not get discouraged about grammar.

Question of the Week:

So, Barbara said that it was optional to put a comma after an AAAWWUBIS, what is the reason for that?